AGAINST OPIUM.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1390, 16 March 1912, Page 6

AGAINST OPIUM.

TRAFFIC STRONGLY CONDEMNED. •'OPINIONS'OF MISSIONARIES. The New Zealand Anti-Opium Association held its nnmial meeting in the Y.M.C.A. Assembly Hall last evening. About 70 members attended, and the chair was taken by Sir. J. G. \\. Aitken, president of the nsweiation. Apologies for absence were received from the Mev. J. Dnwson and from the Chinese Consul. The secretary (Captain H. S. Blackbnrne) read a. lengthy annual report, which opened by expressing regret at tho need for the continued existenco of tho- society, and went on to describe tho present position Df Great Britain and China in regard to the opium traffic. The report heartily commended tho efforts made by China to stamp out the production And uso of tho drug, and adversely criticised tho action of the Imporcal Government in refusing to immediately prohibit the exportation of opium from India to China, although it had agreed to tormina to tho traffic, in a term of less than seven years. The report described in detail tho proceedings of the antiopium conference held at The Hague in 1911, and attended by the representatives of twelve nations. Great Britain wa3 the only nation represented which declined to njree not to export any moTe opium to China. Tho anti-opium resolution passed at tho previous annual meeting of tho association had been forwarded to tho I'nimo Minister and other leading men at Home, and a number of replies had been received. Mr. Asquith had stated that the matter of tho opium traffic was engaging the continuous attention of tho Imperial Government. In moving the adoption of the report, Mr. Aitken commended highly the zeal, diligence, and persistence displayed by Captain Blackburne in performing hi 3 duties as secretary of the association. ■ The Rev. H. G. Blackburne, in seconding the motion, declared that the leisurelv action of the British Government comp'ared very badly with _ tho wonderful energy and enterprise with which China was endeavouring to stamp out the opium evil. The report was adopted. The following officers were elected foi tho ensuing year:—President, Mr. J. G. W. Aitken; vice-presidents, the Revs. H. G. Blaekburne, J. Gibb, DJ)., J. J. North and Hinton, the Hon. G. Fowlds and Mr. A. Hoby; hon. secretary .and treasurer, Mr. H. S. Blackburne; committee, Messrs. Badden, G. Paradise, J. Mtirroll, D. Purdie, J. Rigg, J. Rumgay, and J. Patterson, jun. ' Miss B. Webster, of the China Inland Mission, was entrusted with the tnsk of moving a resolution expressing profound grief? shame, and indignation that Britain should still countenance the production of opium and its export to China and imploring the Imperial Government to free China from tho treaty under which eho was bound to admit the drug. Speaking to this resolution Miss Webster expressed some opinions which she confessed might be regarded as heretical. At tho outset she quoted the '.Bey. G. Campbell Morgan as saying: "Christianity undertakes to deal with conditions as they arc. Propaganda against specific sins is not Christian." Sir W. Robertson Nicoll hod eaid that when ono barrier to Christian progress was clearqd away, another roso up. Miss Webster mado one more quotation, this time from an Australian newspaper. It'was to the effect that the suppression of the opium traffic in China would clear tho way 'for a substantial' increase in the consumption of wines, which could .be supplied from Australia. What would be accomplished,, she asked her hearers, if opium were, driven out of China only to let an equally great evil in. It had been eaid that if prohibition were carried tn,New;Zealand everybody would ,be much more easily converted. Similarly it was said in China that people would bo moro easily converted. The opium traffic was morally indefensible, but there was something to be fought that was deeper than the opium traffic or tho drink traffic. Love of money was the root of rill evil nnd love of money accounted for the existence of harmful traffic. Regret had beeu expressed that tho association,'could noti.disband with its work accomplished, but if tho expuleion of opium from China were followed by the introduction of Australian wines, nn anti-wine league would have to be formed at once. If the Australian States took advantage of tho banishment of opium to send their wines into China a gigantic task would still remain to bo faced. Miss Webster, went on to remark that while she respected the Anti-Opium League, she did not believo they had got'to the.root of the: matter, •and she did not think legislation would ever put these things right. To close the door of China upon opium and to let' in wine and cheap cigarettes would make her last state worse than tho first. In this matter the Anti-Opium League was not fighting England nor the Government of England, but the power of the devil. To say that it was easier to convert a man ■ who was not an opium smoker than one ■who was,-was-to- limit the Gospel of Christ. She moved tho /resolution (mentioned above) with the reservations indicated in her address. Tho opium traffic was altogether bad, but the way in which it had been attacked was possibly not tho way in which- a Christian peoplo should have attacked it. Mr. J. W. Webster, another China inland missionary, seconded the resolution. Ho announced himself as a representative of Szeehuan, one of the five provinces which havo now prohibited opium within their borders. At one time, ho stated, the province had produced nearly one-half of the total opium produced in China.' Now not a. leaf of the poppy could be found from ono end of the district to the other. 'China had willingly forfoited a revenue of twenty-three millions a year in order to got rid of the opium curso. England, ns yet, had lost nothing. Instead she had gained during the last few years by the increased prices of opium. Mr. Webster urged that, as a sign of repentance, England should not only free China from opium obligations, but should cede all standing claims to indemnity on account of the Boxer troubles. England had derived- as a result of the increase in the price of opium. It would be honourablo and just to let the rest go. Tie motion was carried unanimously.